Psychoanalytic thought #001

From a great lecture given earlier this year by British psychoanalyst Adam Phillips for London Review of Books, titled 'Against Self-Criticism':

"Like a malign parent [the super-ego] harms in the guise of protecting; it exploits in the guise of providing good guidance. In the name of health and safety it creates a life of terror and self-estrangement. There is a great difference between not doing something out of fear of punishment, and not doing something because one believes it is wrong. Guilt isn’t necessarily a good clue as to what one values; it is only a good clue about what (or whom) one fears. Not doing something because one will feel guilty if one does it is not necessarily a good reason not to do it. Morality born of intimidation is immoral. Psychoanalysis was Freud’s attempt to say something new about the police."

Listen here:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n05/adam-phillips/against-self-criticism



Thanks to Amelia Groom for the heads up.